All Rise...

The Charge

She's beautiful. She destroys evil. She's a huntress.

Opening Statement

More rubber-suit import action from the land of the rising sun? Yes
please!

Facts of the Case

When your home planet is assaulted by an indestructible alien with a
worm-like extendable woman's face, who do you call? How about Iria (Yuko
Moriyama) and her sidekick, Bob, a talking computer? These two are the galaxy's
premier bounty hunters and have been dispatched to recapture Zeiram, a
genetically-engineered killing machine that's escaped from space custody and is
on the rampage.

To bring Zeiram in, Iria stops first at Earth to set up base camp, and then
enter The Zone, a virtual reality created for bad-ass space warriors to do
battle against each other. But as Iria teleports in, she accidentally brings
along a couple of goofy electricians into The Zone. With bystanders now drawn
into the fray against the deadliest foe they've ever faced, Iria and Bob will
have to draw on all their cunning and high-tech plastic-looking laser rifles to
pull this one out.

The Evidence

Zeiram started out so promising. In an all black-and-white preamble,
we see Zeiram escape his police captors with much violence. Body parts get
mangled, faces are smashed, and fluid spouts in geysers, all in that
over-the-top, rubber-suited flavor that is whacked-out Japanese sci-fi
mayhem.

Then the brakes are applied, and aside from a few nifty action sequences,
Zeiram drags. The high-points, action-wise are the face-offs between Iria
and Zeiram, the biggest hitter happening close to the beginning. Skip ahead some
chapters and we're at the finale, a stunning exercise in the art of multiple
denouements (Peter Jackson must have been taking notes), and, thankfully some
more action. But the middle third is comprised of the two bumbling electricians
trying to make their way through The Zone after they are mistakenly left behind,
with Iria talking them through the danger.

Talking. There's so much talking in this movie. Or maybe it felt like there
was so much talking. I don't know, but it seemed those sequences where Iria and
Bob droned on and on about obeying the by-laws of interstellar bounty-hunting
and ensuring that no civilians died so that they could keep their licenses felt
unending and monotonous. And Bob's deadpan, computer-speak shtick quickly
devolved into tedium, which didn't do much to make the material more
entertaining.

The action respites between the chattiness are much-welcomed and, for the
most part, a lot of fun to watch. Zeriam is a ridiculous creation, a lumbering
behemoth with a tentacle face not unlike those things from Tremors. Iria is no slouch either, as
she's been outfitted with some bulky plastic super-armor that, while the get-up
strikes me as counter-productive (her helmet resembles some kind of archaic
third-party NES attachment), it goes a long way in giving the film a unique
look. The visual effects are largely prehistoric, yet engaging in a schlocky
way. Dig the portable prison, which engulfs its victim in some poorly-rendered
CGI, then following a convenient edit, turns into what appears to be one of
those giant, inflatable Santa snow-globes you can buy at Wal-Mart. Finally, the
filmmakers have included nifty stop-motion animation for the climactic creature
effects, which is always cool (though the sequence where they're used feels very
Terminator-esque).

As can be expected with the Tokyo Shock branch of the Meida Blasters studio,
this DVD delivers on the technical front. The 1.77:1 anamorphic widescreen
transfer looks terrific, rejuvenated from its source materials, and boasting
solid color works and detailing. Japanese and English stereo tracks accompany; I
stuck with the dubbed audio because it fit the tone of the film more. English
subtitles are available.

The only extra of interest is a decent making-of, featuring interviews with
director Keita Amemiya and Yuko Moriyama. Trailers cap off the set.

Closing Statement

There's some good fun to be had here: the action is fast and frenzied and
littered with over-the-top effects and the film boasts a laid-back, lighthearted
tone, which is infectious. Unfortunately, a slow pace and too-long dialogue
scenes keep Zeiram from being a real find.